


what zea doesn't tell you can't hurt you. probably.

by isurani



Category: Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Kamen Rider OOO, Kamen Rider W, Kamen Rider Zero-One, Kamen Rider: Memory of Heroez
Genre: Bonding, Gen, Post-Canon, copious mentions of sougo and tsukasa, for all three series, since they have caused many many problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27409246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isurani/pseuds/isurani
Summary: If there’s exactly one thing Aruto has learned from hanging around two (three?) riders and also their rider friends for the past week - it’s that Sougo was absolutely, positively NO help in preparing him for this.Shotaro-san says that’s nothing, though. At least his predecessor isn’t Decade.
Comments: 20
Kudos: 59





	1. on introductions and how everything is probably zi-o’s fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which riders meet, Aruto is hopelessly confused, and crossover movies may or may not be canon. Movie War Core doesn't count.

Maybe it’s because he was actually unconscious moments before the battle started. Or maybe it’s because his brain hasn’t made the connection between the detective-looking guy who helped him up earlier and the green-and-black Kamen Rider standing before him. Or maybe he’s just misremembering his voice.

Still, when Double’s - W? Is it pronounced double-u? Just double? He’s going with double for now - right eye lights up and an _entirely different_ voice comes out, Aruto finds himself jumping about a foot in the air from sheer shock.

Or, well, it was _meant_ to be a foot in the air, but the fantastic powers of grasshopper legs leave him jumping far over the other Kamen Rider with a similarly hard-to-pronounce name - he had _said_ Os, but that didn’t make any sense, and they really did not have time to exchange civilian names before the whole place kinda blew up - and landing gracefully behind him. And all the security robots, who turned towards Aruto at the clatter he made.

Oh, did he say gracefully? Yeah, he meant landing badly on his ankle again and rolling into the wall. Fantastic first impression he’s making, really.

“Zero-One, are you okay?” It’s a quick yell from the one named Os, or something, before he returns to attacking the robots with the sort of tiger claws Aruto’s been admiring. Could he use Flaming Tiger? Would that be cool? He thinks that would be kind of _pawsome_. 

Probably should have saved that joke until someone would actually hear it, but inspiration comes and goes. He stumbles to his feet, yelling out that he’s fine, thanks, it’ll be fine, but he doesn’t know if it’s from the suit’s enhanced hearing or _what_ that he immediately hears the unfamiliar voice come from Double again.

“His period of unconsciousness may correlate to a concussion. It’s likely that he’s suffering temporary cognitive symptoms.” Is it talking to him? Aruto _really_ does not like that. He’s feeling a bit like a stressed out squirrel at the moment, but Double can’t see that through the mask, so he just kinda squeaks out an “I’m fine” which is entirely unconvincing.

“Philip, save it until later. He hasn’t passed out yet! He’s doing fine.” 

Aruto’s in the middle of punching away a robot and wondering whether that’s a compliment or not when he realizes that that was the original voice. Two? Two of them?? He can barely handle the fact that there’s other riders that he didn’t know about - why are there two in one?

The confusion persists until they eventually fight back the wave of security robots, and while the other non-Double rider mentions they should keep moving - there’s a joke to be made there, he looks like a traffic light and wants them to keep moving, but Aruto can’t put it to words and the first joke he makes to them has to be _perfect_ \- Aruto’s got other ideas.

“Stop! Stop stop stop.” The two of them turn to him as he pulls the Rising Hopper progrisekey out of his belt and detransforms. “Can I get an explanation? Or something? Who are you guys?!”

He’s sounding a little panicked, he thinks, but once again, he was unconscious and there are _other riders no one told him about_. Aruto’s pretty sure he remembers one other rider, one that wasn’t part of AIMS or ZAIA or Metsuboujinrai, but their face is hidden behind blurry memories and static, and he can’t focus on it for too long. Weird. Probably just a dream?

“Ah, right, we should probably get you up to speed,” says Double, detransforming himself - and yeah, there’s only one of him. What the hell.

The thing _is_ , now that Aruto’s detransformed as well, they can now see his stressed-out squirrel face. That helps with letting everyone know he’s confused, but he’s also kind of dying. 

At least the other rider messes with his belt as well, leaving another unfamiliar guy with just a real mismash of clothing. And Izu got on Aruto’s case about not looking professional. The sweater? Cardigan? Whatever it is looks comfy, but also a little like a curtain. And is that tie-dye? It’s like rummaging through a thrift store. Which isn’t _bad_ , the thrift store is where some of his best hoodies come from, but - wait, no, he needs to focus.

“Uh,” Aruto starts, really putting those public speaking skills to use. “Um. I’m. Aruto Hiden. Kamen Rider Zero-One. I didn’t really get everyone’s names…? Or, you know, remembered them. Robots were a priority.”

He is falling apart. Maybe that disembodied voice from Double was right and he _does_ have a concussion. Still, the thrift-store rider laughs and extends a hand.

“Don’t worry,” he says, “It must have been confusing. Eiji Hino, Kamen Rider OOO.” He draws three little circles in the air as he says it, even though he says it like ‘Os’. Okay. Weird, but okay.

“Sorry we didn’t reach out to you before.” Aruto tentatively shakes his hand - is this a professional thing? Like a business deal? He guesses so, from the “reach out” comment and all that, but Hino-san continues. “We didn’t know there had been another rider so recently.”

“It’s been a kind of mess communication-wise.” The detective-looking guy shakes his head, but seems to agree. “But, uh, welcome to the club. Shotaro Hidari from the Narumi Detective Agency. Kamen Rider W.” He looks at Hino-san, then haphazardly draws a “W” himself. Okay, so it’s pronounced Double, but written as the letter? Aruto...thinks he gets it. Maybe.

“We’ll fill you in on the way, but we need to keep moving before they realize what’s happened,” Hino-san says. Aruto really, really has more questions, but he’s not going to argue. Okay, he might argue with a detective guy. Not someone who wears tie-dye and mostly pulls it off.

* * *

They’ve been moving in relative quietness, aside from filling Aruto in on the basics. There hasn’t been any sectors that needed cleared, and they’ve made it to some sort of apartment base, so Aruto assumes they’ve been going backwards. However, he can’t hold back his questions forever, and Aruto finally pipes up once they’re up the stairs and in the empty apartment.

“So, um, what did you mean? About me being another rider?” The question isn’t exactly coherent, so he tries to elaborate. “I mean, I know there’s other riders, I _know_ most of them, but I didn’t know you guys were around. And you look completely different, and…” 

He trails off. It’s feeling a little like that weird dream he had with the rider he can’t quite remember, even if their face is getting a little clearer the more he thinks about it. Something about a clock…

Hidari-san sits pretty much bolt upright from where he was laying on the bed, exhausted. His hat’s fallen off, and he places it back on his head with a sort of dramatic flair to it - and he’s really taking a long time to answer.

Hino-san answers first.

“Did no one meet you before?” He sounds a little worried, actually. “Usually riders end up finding their way to each other, or at least their predecessors. I met Shotaro-san before I really became active, and he…”

“We are not talking about Kadoya to the newbie,” Hidari-san states.

“Okay, that’s fair.”

Aruto blinks. Aside from really wanting to know who Kadoya is now, he really didn’t know there were other riders. Did he meet anyone before everything went to hell, or…?

He thinks back to his dream again.

“I, uh...dreamed about meeting a rider, one time.” He’s speaking before he really realizes it, but both Hidari-san and Hino-san are looking at him, now, so he can’t exactly stop. “Like, I remember everything that happened in the dream really well. There was someone messing with time, and I...met my dad, and he was a rider, too. And some of the stuff in the dream was real, like stuff that my dad did...I learned that later. But the rider I met...I can’t really remember him? He didn’t want me to remember him?” Aruto feels sheepish - it’s more of a stream of consciousness than describing something.

“Can you remember what he looked like at all…?” Hino-san seems serious in his question, though. They’re not shrugging it off, which is more than Aruto expected.

“Um, not a lot...gray? Pink…?” The more he focuses, the more Aruto remembers the clock thing - though maybe because that’s because the dream was about time. “Uh, he looked a lot like...a clock. And he was gold when we fought the enemy at the end. He turned gold, and there were a lot of statues of riders I didn’t recognize…”

Now that he thinks about _that_ and not the rider, he can focus a little better. It’s weird, but W and OOO really do remind him of those statues, too.

Hidari-san sighs.

“Zi-O. Of course his predecessor was Tokiwa.” He shakes his head. “Can’t make anything easy, huh? No wonder why communication’s been a damn nightmare.”

“It’s not _entirely_ his fault,” Hino-san tries to say. “I met him, too. Or, well, I think I did? And yeah, he’s a little…”

“Completely weird?”

“A little out there, but he was a good kid. I’m sure it would have been fine if we could contact him.” he finishes. Hino-san looks at Aruto, sheepish himself. 

Aruto kinda gets the gist of what’s going on. Mostly.

And then Hidari-san says “Good kid or not, he’s gotta stop erasing people’s memories,” and Aruto no longer gets it.

“He erased my _memories_?!”

* * *

It’s a slightly-awkward discussion of what the hell Zi-O’s whole deal was before Aruto’s memories clear up a little more. Some of it makes sense - time travel and all that. A lot of it doesn’t. Hidari-san keeps complaining about the Kadoya guy Aruto isn’t allowed to ask about.

“Long story short,” Hidari-san says, “You managed to get the one guy who’s completely MIA and living a rewritten high school version of his life as a senpai.”

“It’s not...usually like that,” Hino-san mumbles. “Shotaro-san made a good first impression.”

“You met me for like fifteen minutes, not counting the time you somehow chased a _coin_ onto a roof.”  
  
“It was a decent fifteen minutes…?”

Aruto’s still kind of reeling from the rushed explanation, honestly. Something about all the riders being _completely_ out of place while Zi-O was around - Hino-san apparently met him, but even he can’t really explain what happened. At least Aruto remembers the guy now - he had really seemed harmless, with all that talk about being a king, but. Hm. He’s kind of uneasy now!

“Anyway,” Hino-san says, “Riders are supposed to help each other out, okay? You’re here now, so we’ll help you as best as we can, Aruto-kun.”

“Um.” Supposed to help each other out? He should record this and send to Gai without any comment. Okay, that would probably be mean, but it’s not like he wouldn’t _deserve_ it - no, no, it’s fine. He’ll tell Fuwa-san about it, though. Aruto goes with saying “Thanks?” in a voice that’s not meant to be as squeaky as it is.

“Alright, with that out of the way!” Hidari-san stands up from the chairs Hino-san pulled together, stretching. “Newbie, don’t look so worried, you’re going to give yourself a headache. It’s gonna be fine, got it? We always end up meeting when the world’s about to end, so this is a step down. Don’t panic.”

“Eh?” Okay, one, he didn’t think he was panicking, but if he _wasn’t_ he definitely is now. Two. “World? Ending? What?”

Hidari-san claps Aruto on the shoulder.

“The world tries to end like every nine months. You’ll get used to it. Now, come on, let’s get moving.”

Hidari-san grabs his driver - huh, it really does look like a W. That’s….something - and heads for the door. Hino-san waits for Aruto to realize everyone is actually moving and he should probably stop sitting there like a surprised deer before walking with him to the exit, but Aruto’s honestly not thinking about that right now.

“So, um, Hino-san -”

“You don’t have to be so formal. Eiji’s fine.”

“Eiji-san. Uh. Is it always like this…?”

Eiji-san gives him a sort of resigned smile.

“Mostly.”

* * *

Aruto never _did_ get to ask who the hell the disembodied W voice was that night. Maybe _that_ 's Kadoya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the memory of heroez copy still isnt here, midterms are making me feel insane, and i finished kamen rider w. so. heres some moh fic while im impatient as hell.
> 
> this wasnt meant to be an introduction chapter but my ability to stay focused is minimal honestly so instead its just the boys meeting :) shoutout to reiwa the first generation that movie was insane  
> also i watched movie war core. as eiji said it was a decent 15 minutes of crossover
> 
> next chapter: aruto's pretty convinced philip is an ai. until xtreme shows up.


	2. on AI, two by two by two-in-one...or something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which there are a lot of birds, Aruto thinks about how his suit works for 0.2 seconds and almost bluescreens, and copious use of the Shine System.

Aruto’s got the hang of this. He’s pretty sure, anyway. He thinks.

Eiji-san and Hidari-san switch forms so quickly like it’s nothing, while he’s got to wait for Zea to beam down the attachments - is it just him? Does no one else have to wait for AI? How do those suits even work??

Either way, Eiji-san switches to a form that’s bright yellow - and he means  _ bright _ , like it’s literally radiating light, and it’s only because of the Zero-One helmet that Aruto can even look directly at it - and half of Hidari-san’s suit goes from black to blue, along with a gun that’s just on his chest now. Huh.

Aruto’s gotta keep up. What next, what next - oh, the problem is the airborne enemies, right? He’s got Flying Falcon, even if he’s a little rusty with it, so he can help out with the enemies, and then he’ll figure it out from there! Probably.

_ Authorize _ , rings the driver, and Aruto holds the key up. 

“Aruto-kun?” He hears Eiji-san say. Oh. He didn’t tell them about his form changes, did he -

The Flying Falcon rider model breaks through a wall. 

Hidari-san swears  _ very _ loudly.

Okay, next time, he should really give a heads up. The key’s pushed into the driver, the faceplates rearranging, and the rider model disassembles and reassembles around Aruto. All done in a few seconds, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

The electromagnetic field crackles and he takes off into the air, and Hidari-san swears  _ again _ . 

It’s not too hard to take down the enemies from there, especially with the Attache Calibur, and Aruto lands a pretty nice hit on one that leads to them both crashing to the floor. With only  _ minimal _ damage to the pavement, he’d like to add.

Sure, some shrapnel cut through a less-armored part of the suit, but like. He isn’t  _ bleeding _ . So it’s minimal.

He’s about to take off once more to do a final search - it seems Hidari-san and Eiji-san really did take care of the rest, even with the slight chaos the Flying Falcon rider model brought - but a hand finds its way onto Aruto’s ankle as he rises into the air. So he’s pinned there like a balloon someone’s holding onto way too tight. 

“Aruto Hiden!” comes the voice, and oh. It’s the disembodied voice. Aruto jolts a little in shock - evidently not enough to be free from that grip, because what the hell is W made of? Metal? Wait, no, that’s the  _ other _ form, this one was called Trigger or something. 

Aruto just kinda. Waves.

“That’s me,” he says. How has he ever made it through a conversation in his life. 

“That bird, earlier! What was it? Was it some sort of hard light construct? No, it couldn’t be, it became part of your suit. It came from somewhere else, correct? Where did your driver connect to?” It’s a stream of questions. Aruto’s working on one at a time, but each time he has the beginning of an answer, the suit’s right eye lights up with another stream. “It’s obviously physical due to the destruction it caused, but it assimilated into your suit without any problems at all! It’s fascinating!”

“Um,” Aruto gets out, and that’s about  _ all  _ he gets out.

“Alright, that’s enough,” and that has to be Hidari-san, he’s recognizing his voice. Hidari-san taps his right hand, and the green side lets go of Aruto.

Aruto’s still kind of processing. Does he actually know how the progrisekey rider models work? He read about it in Zea once, but it was kind of a life-or-death situation and also a year ago. He was skimming.

“Hey, kid, you’re floating -”

Wait, hold on, he’s trying to think now. They come from Zea, right? So they’re definitely Zea just fabricating stuff to send down and that’s why there’s a delay. Does that mean his suit is remade every time he summons it? Well, the undersuit stays the same, actually. Aruto should  _ really _ do some more reading.

There’s a flash of red light, and Eiji-san’s belt  _ sings _ \- oh. Eiji-san. 

“Alright, let’s get you back down,” Eiji-san says as he grabs Aruto. He looks a lot like Jin at the moment, actually, with large, striking red wings. 

Oh, and they’re very, very high off the ground now. Aruto supposes he should have expected that, honestly, but he was doing important things. Like thinking about his suit. He doesn’t exactly do it often.

The two of them come back to the ground - rising with Flying Falcon is always easier than coming back down, so Aruto’s grateful for the help - but man, he’s a little embarrassed when pulling out the key.

“Sorry, Eiji-san.” Wait, wait. Everyone needs to hold on. This is his  _ moment _ . “I guess I got a little... _ carried away _ ?”

Hidari-san, detransformed and about to say something, instead just stares at him with his mouth open. Eiji-san just blinks.

“And thaaaat’s how you know it’s Aruto!” He points directly at Hidari-san, who doesn’t move. He doesn’t even take off his driver.

“That...was…” Hidari-san mutters. “A joke…?”

Eiji-san actually laughs a little, even if really more like a chuckle and Aruto’s like 90% sure it’s just to be nice to him. Well, it was an attempt, and any laughter is better than the usual, so he’s counting it as a win. Next one will be better, anyway.

“No, Philip, I know what the joke was, you don’t have to explain it to me. Yes, I know. No -  _ Philip -”  _ Hidari-san cuts himself off in a sort of exasperated groan, walking away. “You absolutely do not need to look up puns. No. Stop it, I know you’re already doing it.”

Philip sounds familiar. Actually, didn’t Hidari-san mention him before? So that’s the disembodied voice…?

“Hey, Hidari-san!” Hidari-san stops for a second, as if he isn’t sure Aruto’s referring to him, before turning around. “Um, so...Philip’s your AI…?”

If Hidari-san didn’t look lost before, he sure does now.

“What? No?” He actually holds up a hand. “Wait, no. I guess? Not really? Give me a second.” He waves it off, going back to arguing with whoever Philip is. It involves lots of pointed reminders that yes, they are in an actively dangerous environment, and no, Philip cannot try out puns on Hidari-san.

So Philip’s reached singularity, Aruto guesses. Izu probably would have liked them, actually, which brings his mood down. Great going, Aruto. He doesn’t really want to ask about them now.

Eiji-san taps Aruto on the shoulder with a small smile that looks more confused than anything.

“So,” Eiji-san says, “Is there a reason why you can make birds crash through walls?”

* * *

Hidari-san is surprisingly quiet about Philip, actually. Which is fine, thinking about singularity kinda sends Aruto’s thoughts spiraling, which is also the  _ worst _ thing to happen when he’s supposed to be focusing on fighting, and, y’know, saving people. Let’s just push that all into a box named “Do Not Open” and open it never, because there are more important things to do!

Ah, wait, even by thinking about his thoughts spiraling, he’s thinking too hard about it. Whoops.

Hidari-san hasn’t said much about AI even when Aruto gets the courage to ask - which is rarely - and hasn’t said anything on his own. So okay, that’s cool, Aruto can play detective himself. He watched a show once. He met Wazu. He’s got this.

(He actually does not “got this” under any circumstances, but, you know. He likes being optimistic.)

Anyway, the reason he’s even  _ thinking _ about it at the moment is because they are currently fighting a very large sentry. A very  _ angry _ sentry. And Hidari-san has been arguing with Philip the entire time about puns. 

“Don’t worry,” Eiji-san says while they’re managing to catch their breath, “they get like this sometimes. I’m kind of jealous.”

Aruto just kinda stares at him.

“Ah. Not like I’m jealous of them fighting?” He’s never going to figure out how to read Eiji-san at this rate, really. Eiji-san just smiles. “It’s different.”

Aruto just nods. He is still so totally lost.

Eiji-san switches to the red Jin-like combo again - the driver sings out  _ Ta~ja~dor  _ and he really needs to ask why it does that, but then again Aruto’s driver has a text-to-speech jingle at the end of every henshin so why does he even bother asking questions - and if he’s going to take the sky Aruto guesses he should focus more on the ground, since W is doing nothing. Okay, that’s rude. Close to nothing.

The progrisekeys are still lost all over the place, so all Aruto has is Shining Assault Hopper, but it works. The driver still cries out  _ warning, warning _ ,  _ this is not a test _ , as he authorizes it and shoves it in, but the driver’s also dealt with a lot worse at this point so it should really be quiet. 

“Shine System, activate!” Man, he missed the Shine System. It’s nice having little drones on your side, even if you have to direct them somewhat. Aruto manages to direct the still very pissed off sentry from attacking W, and tries to tap him on the shoulder as he passes by.

“Hidari-san, help?!” It’s more of a cry than anything, but Hidari-san mercifully,  _ finally, _ takes notice.

“Right, alright.” He goes to switch out his own driver with what looks like colorful USBs - do they store as much data as the progrisekeys? They’re certainly smaller. Questions for later - but his right hand stops him as the right eye flashes once more. 

“Wait a moment, Shotaro,” the voice that Aruto is slowly connecting to the name “Philip” continues. “I think we should try something else.”

And, you know, it’s really all fun and games with birds crashing into stuff until a metal thing that looks only slightly like a bird hits Aruto right in the head as it makes its way to Hidari-san. Is this karma? Probably.

Aruto decides that this whole thing is  _ for the birds _ , and says so.

“For the birds means that something is worthless or not to be taken seriously,” Philip says, and holy shit, he really is explaining the joke. Aruto almost yells. “For example, Shotaro, you would say that my lookups are also for the birds.”

Hidari-san groans. “Please just hurry up and use Xtreme.”

Aruto’s head is still kind of spinning, actually, and it still is even as Hidari-san takes the bird-thing and puts it on his driver. And then opens it.

Of course, the sentry robot takes that moment to attack right where they’re standing, even though Aruto really wanted to see how it worked, but even as the pavement breaks and Aruto focuses the Shine System on attacking, he can make out Hidari-san.

Is that a  _ sword _ ?!

“Newbie!” Hidari-san yells, and okay, Aruto’s paying attention he swears. He almost forgot to duck right there under the attack but he did, so you know. He’s got this. “You got your weird crystal things! Focus them on three, okay?”

Aruto nods, and then realizes that’s a terrible form of communication. He yells back instead. “GOT IT!”

There’s a roar from the sentry, and Eiji-san lands roughly near them, stumbling to his feet before falling back down. Before he really realizes it, Aruto’s covering him. He would really like people to stop getting hurt, thanks.

“One - Two -” There’s a cry of  _ Maximum Drive _ from Hidari-san’s sword and shield, over and over. “Three!”

“GO!”

“Bicker Final Illusion!”

There’s the Shine System’s beams, yeah, but then there’s also the absolute multicolor of light coming from Hidari-san’s shield as soon as him and Philip yell. The combined force absolutely pierces through the sentry, finally sending it to the ground. 

That...was a lot. Aruto detransforms immediately - Assault Hopper isn’t too bad of a strain anymore, honestly, but it’s still not the most comfortable upgrade around - and collapses on the ground. Pavement sweet pavement. It’s incredibly dusty down here.

“That was really impressive.” Eiji-san sits down next to him, smiling. “You three work well together.”

Aruto blinks.

“Three…?”

“And all I’m saying is that you are not immediately going to ask him about puns, okay? He’s  _ new _ .” Hidari-san’s not even listening, actually. He mumbles something else to himself, a “ _ fine _ ,” and then closes the bird-memory-thing. Whatever it is. Xtreme.

There’s some more white light, as well as the wind Aruto’s realized comes with W’s henshin, and then -

There’s two of them.

There’s Hidari-san, yes, with his hat and tie and everything, looking thoroughly tired, and then there’s...someone else.

Someone else, with musical note clips in his hair, a red striped shirt, a long blue sleeveless hoodie of some sort - it certainly looks comfy. Also what Aruto can only assume are fingerless gloves. 

“Oh, Philip-san, you’re here,” Eiji-san says, completely unsurprised.

Aruto is a little less eloquent.

“Huh? What? Huh? There’s two of you?!”

Hidari-san just sighs, but without the helmet, it’s definitely in a good-natured way. Well, Aruto’s still lost, but at least everyone’s happy?

“This is why we’re called “Double”. Newbie, this is Philip. My partner.” Philip’s looking around at the area first, before setting his eyes on Aruto.

Aruto sits up, suddenly feeling very much like some sort of prey animal, actually.

“You’re Aruto Hiden,” Philip starts, and before Aruto can even blink, there are two hands on Aruto’s shoulders. Nowhere to run now. “CEO of Hiden Intelligence as of September 2019, pioneer in human-Humagear relationships, former comedian. I was reading about you. There’s a lot of new information.”

Does he have a Wikipedia article? Is this a good thing? He feels like he’s going to be categorized as “Early Life”, “Mistakes begin”, and “Mistakes continue”.

“I have a lot of questions,” Philip says instead. “Firstly, what do you know about puns?”

From the look Aruto sees, Hidari-san is going to kill him. Whether that means Philip or Aruto is anyone’s guess.

* * *

Philip is now a part of their group, although technically Aruto guesses he always was, from the explanation he got of W’s powers.

Also part of their group: Philip waking him up at 3am to ask how the rider constructs work. Aruto gives an incredibly detailed description of how he has absolutely no clue, Philip should really ask Zea because honestly Aruto skimmed the manual the first time.

He wakes up to six emails from new Izu about a security breach. Please help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its 3am. no i refuse to explain why i wrote this at 3am. dont worry. philips here now.  
> now im ENTIRELY sure this is not how xtreme will work in game but consider this: i would like it to :)
> 
> i think philip and izu would be friends. aruto thinks so too hes just depressed dont worry . sorry to cause him problems and issues
> 
> did you guys know that the robot animals that show up during the henshins in zero-one have names? i sure didnt. theyre called rider models! riderwiki has a whole entry on them! damn! kamen rider gets way too indepth with how their suits work it makes my brain hurt. ive only got two braincells to write with man
> 
> next time: xtreme is cool. putotyra is less cool. aruto isnt sure zero-two even counts at this point. ark-one DEFINITELY doesnt count.


	3. on whether or not suits are sentient enough to just really, really hate your guts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which riders are the most restless people in the known multiverse, Aruto doesn't know what alchemy is, and berserker forms are more common than you think.

Objectively, taking a break from a mission where they are quite literally stuck in an actively dangerous zone is a terrible, awful idea. It’s really not good.

On the  _ other _ hand, Eiji-san had managed to get injured, and it would be a really bad idea to keep moving under those circumstances.

So there the four of them were, in the mostly-empty apartment. Eiji-san’s gotten the coveted bed, by nature of being the one actually injured. He insisted it wasn’t that bad, and that they could keep going until they needed to stop for the night - something that Aruto’s beginning to pick up as a trend with Eiji-san, he’s both very resilient and much more stubborn than he looks - but Philip read to him an entire page of how his wound could get infected if it opened up again, and even Eiji-san decided that was good enough reason to stop.

Aruto, on the other hand, is laying on the ground. It’s nice. Hardwood floor. He’s sure he saw something about this in the self-care tactics new Izu brought up to him. Then again, those self-care tactics also including “screaming into the void”, which he’s not  _ against _ but doesn’t think is too practical. 

Either way, he’s not feeling fantastic. Eiji-san had really only gotten injured because Aruto had been too reckless with the cluster cells, feeling a bit too confident with getting the Metal Cluster key back. While they’re under his control now, they’re still incredibly dangerous. Fantastic for getting rid of enemies, but their area of effect is a bit...broken. 

Aruto lets out a big sigh instead. Eiji-san had reassured him that it wasn’t his fault, it was one of the guards that actually made the wound worse, the cluster cell had just scraped him and left him open. So it was only his fault  _ indirectly _ . He’s been a fantastic successor, really.

Even supposedly taking a break, all of them are restless. Shotaro’s fiddling with the memory gadgets he’s found, half of them crawling around the room - the frog one has mimicked Aruto’s  _ Aruto ja naito  _ about fifteen times at this point, which is pretty cool and also incredibly loud. Apparently Philip had gotten it to do that? At least, that was Aruto’s guess after Hidari-san got sick of it and threw a pillow at it. It didn’t do anything to stop it, and it was a pillow Eiji-san had been using, leaving him to fall right back onto the bed with a cut-off protest - but it was pretty funny.

Philip’s been reading, even though that book is, in fact, blank. Aruto’s been trying to sneak looks when he thinks Philip isn’t paying attention, but Philip always catches him and closes the book. He’s certain it’s blank. Philip had asked if there was anything Aruto wanted him to look up as well, but Hidari-san had yelled not to “trick the new kid into giving you a lookup topic”, with a disclaimer that giving Philip any ideas would possibly take him out of commission for hours. Aruto was considering the idea, actually, even with Hidari-san grumbling that Philip would just start writing on the walls.

Aruto himself is just flicking the Metal Cluster key open and closed. It makes a satisfying “click, click” with each movement, which is nice and takes him away from just sitting there with his thoughts.

Mostly, anyway.

“Hey,” he ends up saying, leading all the others to look at him as soon as he speaks up. “Do you guys ever get the feeling your suits just want you dead?”

If Aruto could ever describe a silence as  _ loud _ , it’d probably be this.

“I don’t believe that’s something that the drivers can decide,” Philip chimes in.

“Not like literally,” Aruto clarifies. “Like...hm. Like there’s a form that just really, really hates you. You know?”

Metal Cluster is usually fine, now that he’s got the Progrise Hopper Blade and all containing the cluster cells. But even then, he swears they fight back against him sometimes, wanting to be free and destroy things by themselves than just be stored as an extension to a brightly-colored sword.

Then there’s Shining Assault Hopper. He doesn’t feel the Ark now, because it’s destroyed. But it’s still an upgrade the Zero-One system was never meant to use.

Then there’s...a form he didn’t bring, and Aruto doesn’t even let himself think about it for too long before looking at Hidari-san.

“Not particularly,” Hidari-san says, but he’s got a look like he’s still in thought. “Though...I suppose Fang wasn’t very cooperative at first.”

“That’s why you’re there,” Philip adds, and Hidari-san nods. The two of them share a look that only lasts moments before Hidari-san goes back to fiddling with his memory gadgets, but there’s enough  _ there _ that Aruto doesn’t ask questions. He’s still not entirely sure what their relationship is beyond just “partners”, and he’s starting to wonder if that word really does encompass everything.

Eiji-san doesn’t respond.

“Well, if it’s like Fang, then…” Philip turns to Eiji-san. “Didn’t you say something similar about those purple medals, Eiji Hino?”

There’s still no reply, and for a moment, Aruto wonders if Eiji-san just got tired of all of them and finally fell asleep.

“Eiji-san?” Aruto asks instead.

“Ah, sorry,” comes the response at last. “I was just thinking.”

There’s nothing more that comes from him, though, and Aruto decides he’s chosen a pretty shitty subject. Though, it wasn’t really  _ meant _ to be a topic of conversation, just him thinking about how much the Ark absolutely loved to hijack his keys and make them absolutely uncontrollable.

(There’s a thought about how Gai was the one to make the Metal Cluster key, as well, and if Aruto was a person who held grudges he could probably sue him for that. He thinks. Is that something he can do? He should ask about it.)

(Not that he holds grudges, though.)

“You’re asking about berserker forms, right?” Eiji-san looks a little uncomfortable, even with that smile he’s giving Aruto, and also Aruto isn’t quite sure how to feel about the idea that these things are so common they have a  _ name _ . “I guess you could consider the purple medals that kind of thing. I don’t think they  _ hate _ me, to put it how you did.”

Eiji-san laughs a little at that, so Aruto counts that as some sort of net positive. Still, Aruto’s never seen those purple medals get used, even though Eiji-san definitely seems to have them. 

“It sure feels like my form hated me,” Aruto grumbles instead. “Just had to sit and watch as it messed everything up.”

“Yeah, it’s not fair, huh?” 

There’s a faraway quality to Eiji-san’s voice, and Aruto doesn’t like it. 

“Anyway,” Eiji-san says, shaking his head. “As I said to you, Shotaro-san, the medals are fine as long as I’m using them. I can keep them under control. It’s different than how it used to be.”

“I wasn’t doubting you,” Hidari-san mutters, but it seems good-natured.

Eiji-san falls silent again after that, and Aruto  _ knows _ this whole thing is to let him rest, so he keeps his mouth shut. But he can tell there’s something being avoided, and it picks at him.

He flicks the key open and closed, over and over.

* * *

Hidari-san and Philip leave to do some sort of “reconnaissance”, which Aruto knows means “messing around with the Denden Sensor to find all the hidden plans they missed”, which  _ also _ means they’ll be gone for a good few hours while they work.

Also, it means Philip’s body is just hanging out in the apartment. That...does not get less freaky, even with Hidari-san’s insistence that the Xtreme Memory will pick him up if they need him. Aruto keeps thinking Philip’s going to move when he’s not looking. He hasn’t so far, but that means nothing.

Eiji-san’s doing a good job of looking remarkably like their passed-out guest as well, though, seemingly asleep on top of the bed. But it’s in that way that isn’t  _ quite _ asleep, like when you’re really good at faking it but anyone with a good enough eye can tell it isn’t quite right.

“You okay?” Aruto asks quietly. It’s possible that Eiji-san’s actually just asleep, so he doesn’t try to move around or make too much noise.

“You don’t have to worry so much, you know.” It’s a quiet response, with that little light-heartedness to it that Aruto’s began picking up on with Eiji-san. “I promise I’m resting.”

“You seemed all worried, earlier,” Aruto mumbles instead. He sits down on the chair Hidari-san likes, still staring at the Metal Cluster key. It’s a bit weird having a conversation like this with one of his senpais, so he’s just going to...not make eye contact. Mostly.

“It was really nothing,” Eiji-san says, but the fact that it’s “ _ really nothing _ ” means that something  _ was _ wrong, so Aruto’s even more determined to figure out what it is now.

“Doesn’t sound like it.” Aruto huffs. “I want to make people smile, you know. I can’t do that when they’re hiding stuff that’s hurting them.”

Eiji-san sighs, even if it’s with a smile.

“I guess all riders are a little stubborn, huh?” Eiji-san stares up at the ceiling, and there’s a moment of silence.

“...is it about those medals Hidari-san mentioned?” Aruto presses. Just a little more. It’s for teamwork, right? Smiles and teamwork. It’s  _ bonding _ , he read about that in one of the self-help articles. Reach out to your friends.

Are they friends yet? Hidari-san and Eiji-san are kind of the first riders that haven’t immediately hated him, even if most of the others are better now. He likes to think that makes them friends. Hopefully.

“Hidari-san...that makes him sound so professional,” Eiji-san says. “You know, he may be our senpai, but he’s still a little all over the place, you know.”

“Really? He seems cool to me…” Aruto thinks. Hidari-san definitely seems hard-boiled! Like a detective should be, right? And he’s really cool to watch fight, and...

Wait.

“Hey, you’re changing the subject!” Eiji-san smiles sheepishly.

“Ah, my bad.” He doesn’t look too guilty about it, though. There’s a smaller sigh, and Eiji-san’s hand is in his pocket once more, holding onto something tight. 

“...I told you earlier, I don’t think they  _ hate _ me. And they’re good to use, especially if it keeps them out of evil hands.” Eiji-san doesn’t quite meet Aruto’s curious eyes. “It’s certainly the strongest weapon I have right now.”

“But you don’t like using them?” Aruto asks. It’s not like he doesn’t  _ get _ it...he assumes that Ark-One is technically the strongest weapon he could have.

He never, ever wants to use it again, he  _ can’t _ , he  _ won’t _ either way. But he gets it.

He just...hasn’t said anything about it, either.

“Yeah, simple as that.” Eiji-san nods, looking back at him and smiling softly. “They’re actually a lot safer right now than they used to be, actually. Probably because they’re just replicas. Still, I don’t really like to use them if I can help it.”

“Because...you go berserk…?”

“Because,” Eiji-san says, “I’m not sure if there’s someone who could stop me if I  _ do _ .”

There’s a sudden memory of Fuwa-san yelling at Aruto to hold himself together while Metal Cluster was rampaging, of pulling the key out and Aruto suddenly being in control of his own body again.

“Oh,” is all he can say in return.

“Ah, that sounds...kind of bad, doesn’t it?” Eiji-san shakes it off with another one of his nice smiles. “It’s not going to get that bad, and like I said, they’re replicas. I doubt they’ll go berserk at all. Even if worst comes to worst, I’m sure Shotaro-san could stop me if I needed it.”

Aruto wants to protest that he could, too, but he bites down on the thought.

“Um,” he says instead, a different thought forcing itself out before he has time to control it, “is there someone else who helped you?”

And what a  _ great _ thing to say, really, as it’s the only thing Aruto’s said that’s seemed to break through that sort of veil of positivity Eiji-san always seems to have. He looks confused for a moment, but the smile’s gone, and even though Aruto can see Eiji start to say anything he’s already waving, flapping his hands to try and shake it off.

“No, no, nevermind!” It’s more of a squawk than anything, really, but Aruto would like to get this out before his brain comes up with more shit to spew out without mind to the consequences. “Don’t worry about it!”

His brain’s working faster, and even as he bites down on the questions Aruto is trying to fit the pieces together. A friend, then? One that isn’t there right now? Either gone or not available or  _ gone _ gone. It probably has to do with whatever Eiji-san’s holding onto so tightly, whatever it is, but Eiji-san’s not going to  _ tell _ him, but -

“It’s fine,” Eiji-san says in the middle of his thoughts. “I guess a few people helped me. My friend Hina-chan, and...someone else. I guess he’d be my partner, like Shotaro and Philip-san.”

There’s that word again,  _ partner _ . It feels...way too personal to ask anything about (not like that had stopped him, though, and again, great going), so Aruto just...nods.  God, he’s really been great to have around, huh? Just poking at personal issues this entire time. Aruto grimaces. 

“Well,” he says, trying to force out something to stop it from getting any more painfully awkward, “if you ever need a hand...I think I’m pretty  _ handy _ for this kind of stuff!”

Even with the finger guns out for this pun (he deployed the finger guns! That’s a big deal!), Eiji stares for a second. Then he seems to realize it’s a joke, and gives a small little chuckle. Which, again, counts, Aruto’s counting it.

“You too,” Eiji-san says, and Aruto almost thinks he’s imagined it.

“Eh?”

“You too,” he repeats. “If you need help, or need to talk. I’m here, too.”

“Are you...sure?” Aruto’s not exactly  _ helped _ a lot himself, has he? He’s kind of just been messing up, trying to catch up, not really sure what to ask about and not ask about. “I mean, it’s fine, but are you  _ sure _ ?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” And Eiji-san looks so serious at this one that Aruto just kinda sucks it up from there.

“...okay, then. We’re  _ both _ pretty handy.”

Eiji-san doesn’t laugh at that one, but the smile seems real enough, so it also counts.

* * *

“So,” Aruto continues, thinking hard. “I guess it’s not the  _ suit _ that hates me. Just the satellite. And it  _ really _ hates me.”

The next hour or so after has been spent as small talk - with every so often mentioning one or two rider things. Aruto’s been doing the bulk of the talking, really, but Eiji-san’s mentioned a few things like using his combos can really tire him out and he’s pretty grateful for the rest, so it’s definitely been worth it. 

“Listen, I really don’t think the suits  _ can _ hate us,” Eiji-san insists.

“When your suit is made of real metal bugs and they all are very angry it feels like it.”

“Still...not exactly the suit.” Aruto huffs. Either way, isn’t it part of the suit?

“Oh, so the suit can’t hate us, but medals can?”  
  
“Alchemy’s different and also bad.”

“I…” Aruto thinks about it for a moment. “I don’t even really know what that word means so okay.”

“There.” Eiji-san gives him a smile like he’s won the conversation, which is also rude because there isn’t any  _ winners _ , it’s just  _ talking _ ? “Ah, it’s kind of fun to argue with someone like this again.”

It’s as close as Aruto gets to an invitation, so he presses again.

“Like you and your partner…?”

“Yeah.” Eiji-san nods and takes his hand out of his pocket at last. It’s a medal in his hand, though it’s got a gold rim, not silver like Aruto’s seen him use. It’s also in two pieces, but that’s all Aruto can really see before Eiji-san puts it away. “Maybe you two would get along...though, he doesn’t really get along with anyone.”

“I’ll make him laugh, too!” Aruto decides. Eiji-san actually laughs at that - how did  _ that _ make him laugh, but not a joke? And Aruto  _ thought _ he was understanding Eiji-san.

“Yeah,” Eiji-san says. “I’d like to see that.”

* * *

It’s  _ another _ two hours from then when Philip jolts awake and Hidari-san returns.

At least, that’s what they told Aruto. He was taking a nap, apparently.

He wakes up to find Eiji-san gone and a blanket on him. It’s kind of silly, because he’s already on a bed.

But it’s nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey im back! wild. "where were you" i hear you all asking. well youll never fucking guess this but i was PLAYING MEMORY OF HEROEZ!!!!  
> i streamed it with a friend and we beat it i am loving life. (thinks about ooo) i am no longer loving life.  
> anyway this is in my own canon of the game bc i can do what i want and also accel showed up before zero-one what the fuck they just left that man to die for 50% of the game  
> anyway fun fact aruto canonically makes puns at ankh constantly and ankh hates them. i love this game
> 
> sorry this one got emo it was the ooo brainworms. ALSO the zero-one brainworms did yall see the realxtime trailer im so excited i love protags so much it hurts and also i love one aruto hiden more than i should
> 
> if i had a metal cluster progrise key i would flick that thing open and closed all day
> 
> next time: if youre a bird.....and hes an ai man......and SHES a robot.....then whos riding the bike (or: izu was mentioned but not heard in the game and ive decided its my duty to fix that)


End file.
